Addressing Vaping through Personal Development
This term, we have tackled the issue of vaping in three opportunities through our directed Personal Development curriculum. The first of these took place in the form of an extended assembly hosted by Daniel Lowbridge, a tobacco control officer from Lincolnshire County Council. Daniel explained to students in Year 7 to Year 10 what e-cigarettes and ‘vapes’ are, how they usually contain addictive nicotine, and how the long-term effects of vaping are yet unknown. The presentation also considered the social media marketing of vapes, particularly the influence of Tik-Tok. Daniel shared information from the organisation ‘ASH’, such as a study that showed how, across 11–17-year-olds, Tik Tok is the most frequently cited source of online promotion for vaping (45%) followed by Instagram (31%).
Following our extended assembly, Year 9 students have seen their PSHE module ‘Healthy Choices’ culminate in a special lesson dedicated to vaping. This session gave pupils another chance to understand the impacts of vaping both on the individual and on the environment – a key lesson when we consider how over 5 million disposable vapes are thrown away every single week.
Finally, our third opportunity to approach vaping head-on this term came when our House Captains worked with Mr Rooke, to create a school ‘anti-vaping poster’ competition. Students across the year groups got creative during their form time Personal Development sessions and created some fantastic, informative posters. The House Captains judged this competition and were extremely impressed with the posters. They decided that their winner was…
Roxy 9W! You can see Roxy’s brilliant winning poster below – I’m sure you will agree it is a very worthy winner.
For parents who wish to learn more about vaping and the risks, laws, or social media context, we can recommend visiting ‘ash.org.uk’.
Ms A Natley
Personal Development/PSHE Co-ordinator
